“If I
could sit down for freedom, you can stand up for children.” --Mrs. Rosa Parks, honorary co-chair, 1996 Stand for
Children rally
On June 1, 1996 the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) convened with
over three thousand co-sponsoring organizations, including the NAACP and many others
in the civil rights community, the largest rally for children in our nation’s
history. Over 200,000 parents, grandparents, child advocates, religious leaders,
and others of every race, age, faith, and discipline from all walks of life gathered
together at the Lincoln Memorial to Stand for Children™. Mrs. Parks, honorary
co-chair with Rosie O’Donnell, provided an iconic statement that still holds
true today as Black children are sliding backwards and child poverty levels are
indefensible in our wealthy nation. In 1997 she and Rosie O’Donnell co-chaired
the follow-up local Stand for Healthy Children Day. Over 700 local events took
place across the country supporting health coverage for all children including
30,000 people who gathered in New York City’s Central Park.
CDF, a
range of Black community leaders including the NAACP, and children’s advocates have
long recognized that health affects every aspect of a child's life—the ability
to grow, learn, play, and succeed—and fought hard to expand access to
comprehensive, affordable health coverage that is easy to get and to keep in
order to help level the playing field for children and close the opportunity gap. In
1997, one in seven children in the United States lacked health coverage. The 1996
and 1997 rallies provided the grassroots push that helped lead to the
bipartisan passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Introduced
and championed by Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch in a Trent
Lott-controlled Republican Senate, President Bill Clinton signed CHIP into law
in August 1997.
For 17
years CHIP has been there, giving working families the security of knowing
their children had access to quality, appropriate coverage they could afford. Since
CHIP’s creation the rate
of uninsured children has been cut in half and is now at a record low,
while improving health outcomes and access to care. The popular federal-state
partnership is now a lifeline for more than 8 million children in low and lower
middle income working families. CHIP and Medicaid provide critical health
coverage for more than 1 in 3 children in our country and in 2012 covered 54
percent of Black children. Even in the post Affordable Care Act (ACA) world CHIP
remains a critical piece in the foundation of health coverage options for
children. But despite this great progress and CHIP’s success, it
faces a very real threat right now: if Congress doesn’t take action, there
will be no new funding for CHIP after September 30, 2015 and millions of children
and families will suffer the consequences.
Next
September may seem like a long way off—especially in this “crisis Congress”
that’s developed a reputation for acting in the 11th hour or not at
all. But in this case we’re talking about the possibility of children actually
losing ground. States are already planning their budgets for the 2016 fiscal
year and need to know if they can continue providing children coverage. That
sort of decision can’t wait until next year. So please join us in urging Congress
to take action now in 2014 when they
return to Washington for the lame duck legislative session. Ask Congress to
extend funding now for CHIP for four more years. We must not allow children
to lose ground.
If funding
for CHIP isn’t extended:
- Millions of children could
become uninsured. The
Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that as many as 2 million
children enrolled in CHIP could become uninsured if CHIP funding is not
extended. Unfortunately, many children now covered by CHIP wouldn’t be
eligible for subsidies to purchase health coverage in the new health
insurance marketplaces because of the Department of Treasury's
interpretation of “affordability” of coverage, which would leave health
coverage financially out of reach for many families. Congress and/or the Administration
should act quickly to fix this problem which is sometimes known as the
“family glitch.”
- Millions more children will pay
more but get less comprehensive coverage in the new health insurance
marketplaces. CHIP
goes further than most commercial health plans to cover the range of services
children need to reach important developmental milestones, especially
pediatric hearing and vision, mental health, and habilitative services and
devices. Because states have recognized cost can be a major barrier to
accessing needed services, they have made CHIP very affordable for
families. Several recent studies have compared health plans available
in the marketplaces to CHIP coverage and clearly shown CHIP to be
substantially more affordable, with significantly lower premiums and cost
sharing, while offering more comprehensive child-appropriate benefits.
- Children may not have access to
the child health providers they need. CHIP provider networks were specifically designed to
provide access to child-appropriate providers, pediatric facilities, and
specialists to ensure children receive medically and developmentally
appropriate care. But current federal provider network requirements
for health plans in the marketplaces don’t ensure children the same access
to the full spectrum of primary and specialty providers they need.
- Without new CHIP funds, states
will lose significant federal health care dollars. Estimates suggest the states stand
to lose between $9.6 and $10.1 billion in fiscal year 2016 alone if CHIP
funding is not extended.
Congress must not play politics with the health of millions
of our children. In an election year when it sometimes seems as if
Congress is doing less legislating than ever, making sure children get access
to the health coverage they need to survive and thrive should be something
they—and we—can all agree on and get done
now. Seventeen years later CHIP has helped put a generation of children on
a path to healthy adulthood. Let’s put CHIP on the same path.
Click here to share your comments and find out what others are saying.
Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children's Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www.childrensdefense.org.
Mrs. Edelman's Child Watch Column also appears each week on The Huffington Post.
|